Student construction sustainability evaluations: A LEED lab case study

Abstract

Construction sustainability involves processes, decisions, and actions during a project life cycle to enhance the project's social, economic, and environmental performance. Much of the existing guidance available to practitioners focuses on planning and execution utilizing a sustainability framework such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). As the demand for sustainability is increasing, universities are offering courses about construction sustainability to educate future professionals and provide hands-on experience to prepare them for their careers. In response to this trend, the USGBC developed a module called LEED Lab, and encouraged its adoption for university construction sustainability courses. The LEED Lab is used by students to evaluate the existing on-campus buildings' sustainability performances. Their evaluation is reviewed by experts for a final LEED certification. The primary objectives of this study are: 1) introduce the LEED Lab, 2) describe a course that adapted the LEED Lab to an actual case, and 3) share lessons learned, including student feedback. At the beginning of the semester, a university building was selected and fundamental information, such as drawings and energy consumption data, were collected. Then, students analyzed the building's sustainability performances, following the eight categories of LEED v4 for Building Operations and Maintenance (LEED O+M): (1) Location and Transportation (LT), (2) Sustainable Sites (SS), (3) Water Efficiency (WE), (4) Energy and Atmosphere (EA), (5) Materials and Resources (MR), (6) Indoor Environmental Quality (EQ), (7) Innovation (IN), and (8) Regional Priority (RP). Throughout the semester, students learned the concept of sustainability and the requirements for each category before they evaluated the sustainability performance of the assigned building. The final students' evaluations from the LEED Lab course were based on the collective activities of diverse students. Students providing feedback on this course reported that the hands-on project experience improved their understanding of construction sustainability. Moreover, students mentioned that additional time was needed to complete the project and suggested that the course should be expanded to two semesters. Greater access to data about facility operations and maintenance was also requested. This study contributes to a better understanding of how to introduce the USGBC's LEED Lab module into a course study and how to effectively adapt the module to educate future professionals in the discipline of construction sustainability.